DEFENDANT IN COP’S DEATH HEARD ON TAPE

Prosecutor uses recording of call to family from jail

San Diego 
Alex Charfauros had already been removed from his apartment when a San Diego police officer was mortally wounded there in a hail of gunfire.

But after the 2010 shooting, Charfauros questioned how he could end up charged with murder in the death of Officer Christopher Wilson. In a call from jail to his family, Charfauros wondered aloud whether telling authorities that his roommate was in the apartment that night would have changed anything.

“What’s the difference if I told you he was in there?” Charfauros asked in a recording played Thursday in San Diego Superior Court. “Why don’t you handle it as if there is somebody in there?”

During his opening statement, a prosecutor said he intended to answer those questions before the end of Charfauros’ trial. He said the evidence would show that at least one thing would be different if the defendant had told the truth.

“Officer Wilson would not have been killed on that day,” Deputy District Attorney Michael Runyon said.

But a defense attorney said there wasn’t enough evidence collected since the killing nearly three years ago to prove that Charfauros is guilty. He said law enforcement authorities went to the apartment looking for Holim Lee, a fugitive.

Lee — who authorities agree fired the shot that killed Wilson — and his girlfriend, Lucky Xayasene, both died that night of self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

“(Lee) was a very dangerous person and the police knew that,” said David Berman, Charfauros’ lawyer. “They had enough information. They didn’t need it from Alex.”

In addition to murder, Charfauros, 29, faces four counts of attempted murder and other charges stemming from the shootout at the complex on South Meadowbrook Drive near Paradise Valley Road. He is one of three people charged in the killing.

The others, Patrick Luangrath and Melissa Ortiz, are to be tried later this year.

Runyon spent much of Thursday morning describing the events before and soon after the Oct. 27, 2010, shooting. He said U.S. marshals and county probation officers went to the apartment around 10 p.m. to check on Charfauros, who was on probation, and to look for information that could lead them to Lee.

As they approached the apartment, someone opened the front door and slammed it shut again. Moments later, a person tried to escape through a back bedroom window but was stopped by a probation officer.

Charfauros was taken into custody soon afterward.

He was asked repeatedly whether anyone else was in the apartment and about guns and drugs, the prosecutor said. He responded: “No,” and “I don’t know.”

When police kicked in the door to a second bedroom, they were met with gunfire. Wilson, 50, was shot in the head.

Runyon said Charfauros was well aware of what was inside the apartment because he and Lee had been dealing drugs there. In the call to his mother and brother, Charfauros talks about his relationship with Lee.

“He’s a good guy, he just lost it,” he said. “I’m supposed to be dead with him.”